1. Field of the Invention
The present invention, relates. to an image-forming device capable of correcting printing characteristics using correction data; an image-forming system employing the image-forming device; and a method of updating correction data employed in the image-forming device.
2. Description of Related Art
In conventional image-forming devices, such as color laser printers, components of the device and the quality of the toner degrade over time. These degradations, along with changes in environmental conditions and the like, produce differences in colors, such as differences in printing density, between images intended to be rendered by the inputted image data and the actual images formed on the recording medium. In order to reduce these differences, there have been proposed image-forming devices for correcting printing characteristics through calibration.
In this type of image-forming device, such as that disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. 2003-202713, a test pattern is printed as a reference image, and a density sensor is employed to detect printing densities in the printed test pattern. The image-forming device determines correction data based on the detection results and stores this correction data in a prescribed storage area.